Tactical Advantage Available
by SPEC OPS STG
Summary: (REWRITTEN) The art of war always changes, never staying the same. Though in this case humanity is the only race able to keep up with evolution.
1. Chapter 1: Evolution

To those wondering, yes, I am rewriting this and I have to say I'm sorry for giving you the crap I first wrote. Though I will be changing a few things but mostly everything will stay the same.

* * *

July 13, 2023

Prophet dug through the ruins of a grocery store, lifting pieces of fallen framework that would take a crane to move. He might be a living weapon but he still had morals that drove him to help any way he could. Though it took him a while to explain to Gould how his memories and personality took over Alcatraz. He threw aside another piece of concrete, and found what he was looking for.

"Here," he said handing off a package of water bottles to a waiting marine. "Get these to the refugee camp."

"Yes sir!" He took the package and hurried through the rubble. There probably nothing left salvageable in the store but Prophet stayed and continued to search. You never know what you could find and the camps needed anything he could find.

"Prophet? You in there?" Came a voice from outside.

"I'm here Gould," he shouted back lifting another piece of fallen ceiling.

"Finally, I've been looking ages for you." He said carefully stepping his way over to Prophet. "We need to get some suit scans done, ASAP. The cradle in my apartment is still working we can do them there."

"I can't leave Gould, these people still need my help." He said throwing a piece of broken shelf away.

Gould sighed. "I know you want to help these people but I think that we have bigger issues. I talked to some of my friend and do you know what we have common?"

"You're all nerds?"

"What? No! Well, yes but that's not the point. The point is that we found out that after the spore everyone in New York who had bad eye sight now has 20/20 vision."

"Good for them, I don't see how this can be a problem however?" He found a package of bread in the rubble and passed it to Gould. "Could you take this back to the camp when you leave?"

"Prophet you don't understand, when the spire released the modified spore it didn't just cover New York. It vented it into the upper atmosphere so now the entire world is covered in it. Haven't you noticed I not wearing my glasses? I don't need them any more, hell, every one in New York doesn't need glasses now!" He turned away, "I'm going back to the apartment come as soon as possible we need those scans. The entire human race may depend on them!"

He started walking away before shouting back, "And yes, I will take this bread back for you!"

As the sound of Gould's footsteps faded away, Prophet moved aside the last piece of shelf and found himself facing the barrel of of SCAR assault rifle held by a trembling marine hiding under the debris, the rifle slowly lowered as the man saw he was rescued.

"What's your name soldier?" He asked holding out his hand.

"Sargent Shepard, sir." The man said taking Prophets offered hand and crawled out of his hole.

"Are you injured?" He asked helping Shepard out of the ruined store.

"No, I'm fine except for my eyes, its weird. But a little sleep and I'll be back in duty."

"What did you say about your eyes?" Prophet asked.

"Oh, it's nothing is just I never had good vision but now I can see crystal clear for a hundred meters." Their route had taken them out of the store and to the gates of the refuge camp, "thank you sir, I think I'll be aright here."

He let go of Prophet's shoulder and walked into the camp leaving Prophet standing there contemplating what had just heard.

"All. Over. The world?" He muttered to himself before turning and started to run to the apartment. He needed to know what the suit could have done to spore, fast and there was only one person who could help with that.

* * *

"Prophet! There you are, finally! Come in I got the cradle all set up." Gould said as he let Prophet to the side room where the cradle was held.

"Have a seat," he did so. "Now let's get this show on the road." Gould typed something on his computer and the suit went offline as the scan began.

"Nothing looks out of place in the suit," Gould began as the scan continued. "No alien tissue, no blood anomalies, no- wait! I found a sample of the modified spore and-"

Gould's face slowly changed into one of fascination. "No. No! That can't be right!"

With the scan completed Prophet stood from the cradle and made his way to Gould. "What did you find."

"I. Am not sure. The spore I found in the suit isn't alien now, it's human!"

"What! How is that possible?"

"I might have a theory," Gould began. "The nanites in the suit are half organic and half machine, the spore, while we thought it was fully biological it is actually just trillions of nanites clomped together that are also half and half. But the thing they both have in common is that the organic half is Ceph meaning that if your DNA got corrupted then Ceph DNA would fill in the missing pieces. But while this modified spore is almost completely identical the only thing that changes is the organic half. While the machine half is identical to the nanosuit and was programmed to kill all Ceph on contact, the organic half is human but not clearly defined."

Prophet stared at him, "defined?"

"All humans have their looks and other stuff programmed into their DNA. The human DNA that the spore is programmed with is largely incomplete meaning that the it could enter your body and be reprogrammed to your DNA with out changing anything about you." He sighed, "and this stuff was spread over the whole world. Why?"

Prophet stared down at his armored hand. "Tactical advantage."

"Excuse me," Gould asked.

"Are you aware of the suit's AI."

Gould looked puzzled, "SECOND?"

"Yeah SECOND, it's made to give me intel, tactical options and to give me every single advantage on the battlefield possible."

Gould still looked puzzled, "So?"

"What if it took the whole of humanity in to account when it was designing the spore."

Gould started to get the idea, "Oh."

Now on the same page Prophet continued, "imagine how hard it would it would be for alien invaders to kill an entire species clad in nanosuits."

Gould could only gape in horror and fascination at what Prophet was suggesting. "Everyone," he gasped. "Oh shit!"

* * *

July 17, 2023: The entire population of New York is found infected with the newly named Nano Spore Effect. People are told to remain calm while a way to treat NSE can be found.

July 25, 2023: Signs of infection are found in Philadelphia, all travel in and out of New York and Philadelphia are halted to try and slow infection. Research of curing NSE is stopped due to no cure existing, when the nanites in the body bond to your DNA there is no way to remove them.

October 05, 2023: NSE has spread all through the USA and Canada, reports of infection coming from the United Kingdom and Japan though in small numbers. While no negative effects are seen the positive ones are yet to be discovered.

January 11, 2024: Population in New York report that infected individuals are "growing a nanosuit." After careful study Gould explained to the public that this is bound to occur as the nanite concentration in a persons body rises due to the nanites using a method called molecular shifting. The adding or subtraction of protons, neutrons and electrons of molecules to get the desired material. When the nanites first enter the body they immediately set to work on transforming any unused material like solid and liquid foods that are ingested as well as any access body waste and fat are, literally, turned into nanites. This happens to a point where his/her body can't contain them any more and the nanites leave the body. But because they are bonded to his/her DNA they can't leave so on the outside of the body they begin to form a protective layer for the human body in imitation of the original way they were programmed. The formation of this protective layer can be called "growing a nanosuit" but it's real name is Eventual Nanite Overflow. This proclamation calms the general public to some extent as well as explains the rapid weight losses now happening across the North American continent.

January 28, 2024: It is confirmed that the whole world is now infected with NSE but only in the North American Continent and even then mostly in New York are there any reports of nanite overflow.

February 16, 2024: A fully formed protective layer or "nanoshell" is formed in New York around Sargent Nathan Shepard. He is compared to Prophet and the original nanosuit and their abilities are mostly identical, enhanced strength, speed, invisibility, temporary invincibility (armor mode), visor mode with nanovision, an implanted SECOND AI and a new ability called shifting. The nanoshell is able to "Shift" its outward appearance so at a thought from the host it can change its color, shape and texture. Also, Shepard while completely capable of ingesting food and water, is feeling no urge or need to eat anything due to the nanoshell giving his body all the energy and nutrients it needs.

March 03, 2024: Nanite overflow has been reported in all major cities around the world while almost all the people of New York have completed nanoshells.

March 12, 2024: Paranoia of a hive mind forming due to the SECOND AIs linking together to make a single master intelligence and controlling the human race are put to rest with more research into SECOND. What is discovered is that the AI is based off of a persons way of thinking, meaning if a man was more into science than combat then his AI would focus more on gathering data and analysis rather than tactical options. But while the AIs are able to link together to be able to process more data faster, there is no evidence that they can merge to form a larger intelligence.

July 20, 2024: Representatives from every nation of the world come together to try and create a world wide government. Though with nanite overflow happening everywhere and the world still adjusting talks are postponed until everything calms down.

September 04, 2024: It is estimated that 75% of the human race has fully developed nanoshells. But while everyone thought that the nanites would destroy all reproductive organs, it proven that it is still possible to conceive naturally by shifting off the nanoshell and engaging in mature activities.

October 16, 2024: Everyone world wide now has a nanoshell and a few similarities in every human become apparent. Men have an average weight of 240 pounds and a height of 7 feet while women have 200 pounds and 6.5 feet though this varies by around 10 pounds or inches ether way. As well every one can reach speeds around 80 kmph and maintain it until suit energy runs out and can lift up to 950 pounds with power mode active. Anyone over the age of 65 regained the body and face they had when they were 25 and so far no signs of aging can be found in anyone. The average IQ of the world is 180 though this too varies, no one has been found with lower than 150.

December 09, 2024: The United Terran Alliance is formed after agreement from every country in the world and it is agreed that earth is getting to small for its growing population. Research into Ceph space flight and weapons has been put into overdrive and with the help of SECOND AIs progress is estimated to proceed quickly.

March 10, 2025: Ceph space flight technology has been successfully reverse engineered and plans for the first human star ship are in the making.

* * *

March 25, 2025

New York Apartment Complex

Admiral Hanna Shepard stood outside on her apartment balcony overlooking what was once Grand Central Park, thinking. She simply could not believe that in two years humanity had progressed this far from pure organics pushed near the brink of extinction to the powerful beings of today. Though, she thought with a sigh, many people lost their lives defended their home and earth would still hold the scars of the Ceph invasion. Central Park was one such scar, the main Ceph spore dispenser had been taken apart and shipped off to area 51 shortly after the UTA was formed. However it would take years just to fill in the hole left behind and though people had already began to try and fill it the time estimated by both man and AI till completion was five years minimum.

But repairs on New York it's self was coming alone much better than anyone could hope. The nanites ability of molecular shifting was not just limited to the tiny machines. A person only needed to put glue or some other material on broken object, say a crack in the wall, then put their hand on it think what they wanted repaired. The persons SECOND would then figure out what the wall was made of then program the nanites to fix it by shifting the glue or other material to the molecular construction of the broken object filling in the crack with the changed material and make it seamless. They could also change the material of any targeted object as well simply by touch, such as making a four centimeter plaster wall into a four centimeter wall of stainless steel. This led to everyone being able to help in repairing the city, but also led to a new building trend. Looking up, Hanna's eyes automatically polarized to enable her to see the metal covered skyscrapers all around without blinding her. Though she helped with repairs she had no part in designing the new futuristic look New York now had, but whoever did needed to get more original. The entire city now looked like something from Star Wars.

"**Incoming message... Data package received.**" The monotone voice of her SECOND who she named Josh broke her out of her thoughts.

She sighed, there goes her two months leave. "Put it on my retina, Josh," she said walking back inside her apartment and sitting on the couch.

"**Processing**." The plain wall in front of her was transformed as lines of data and text flowed behind her eyes. As Josh translated the data it slowed and stopped, becoming what she thought to be an ordinary report from her ship but the first lines changed that idea instantly.

_**/UTA/RnD/ to Admiral Shepard/**_

_**/Top secret/eyes only/**_

_**/Project Explorer/open/confirm?.../**_

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Constructive criticism is welcome and I'm also open to ideas.


	2. Chapter 2: Discovery

Like I said earlier some things will stay the same, technology being one of them. For those who read my first attempt you might remember my description on the harpoon. If you have no idea its at the bottom.

* * *

July 21, 2025: The first human FLT drive, the Harpoon Mk I is successfully developed and constructed though tests are unable to be preformed within an atmosphere. The Explorer project is put into overdrive, estimated completion of the vessel is early December.

August 04, 2025: The United Terran Navy is formed, as well a new army and navy regulation is put into effect. For all personal on duty full nanoshells are expected and in the UTN absolutely mandatory due to hazardous work spaces.

December 10, 2025: The UTN Explorer is completed, and its launch into space is successful. Tests on the ship's systems are to proceed before the testing of the Harpoon Mk I.

* * *

December 13, 2025

UTA Explorer

Mars orbit

"Fold successful, power cells steady, engine are a go and awaiting your orders ma'am!" Shouted a bridge officer over the sounds of celebration.

Hanna smiled, though it wasn't visible through the helmet of her nanoshell everyone on the bridge could see she approved.

"All right, good job everyone!" She shouted receiving another cheer from the bridge. "But," she continued, "we still have our duties to fulfill." The noise level dropped considerably as the words sunk in and people fell silent.

"Helm, keep us in stable orbit. Ops, I want scanners sweeping the surface," she stood from her captains chair. "If anything happens call me, I'll be down in the communication room."

After receiving signals of acknowledgment she turned, leaving the bridge and headed to the crew deck of the Explorer.

Over all it wasn't that bad of a vessel. The 300 meter long arrow shaped scout ship was the very first humanity had constructed and had taken no shortcuts in its design. The ship's armor was a fully synthetic nanoweave over top of a brand new titanium alloy. As well it was equipped with a newly developed Archangel laser beam weapon, supported with almost 20 Medusa missile pods and 45mm Gauss supported auto cannons. But the main power house of the Explorer was its prototype Harpoon engine. They had just tested its capabilities on this trip to Mars, traveling a distance of 219 million km in under 10 seconds. Though its estimated that this distance is only 0.5 percent of its maximum range though no one is willing to test its full capabilities yet.

Hanna's train of thought ended as she entered the comms room. Walking to the holotable in the center she keyed in the link to command and waited for the Quantum Entanglement Communicator to receive the returning signal. With a crackle the holotable lit up revealing none other than the nanosuited General Barnes, otherwise know as Prophet, himself.

"General," Hanna snapped off a textbook salute which he returned.

"Admiral, I'm guessing everything is alright with the ship?"

"Everything is fine Barnes," she said removing her helmet letting down her bright red hair. After a moments hesitation Barnes removed his as well showing his scarred face, it was just a mutual sign of respect between friends.

"Good, Gould was saying there was a chance of the ship tearing it's self in half."

"Well general thankfully he was wrong," she replied.

"Yes thankfully," he began to type something into an invisible keyboard in front of him.

"Admiral what I am about to show you is classified beyond top secret, even I wasn't told of this till two hours ago." His holographic body vanished to be replaced with an image of a very old space station.

"The Hubble space telescope," Barnes voice continued. "It provided our first views into the galaxy that we would enter, but the one thing it lied of was an empty galaxy." The map disappeared and in its place was an old photograph taken of somewhere the asteroid belt, but the object in the picture could hardly be called a rock. It was a massive ship, compared to the rocks around it the entire thing was a staggering 2 km long and almost 500 meters wide. Though it vaguely resembled the Ceph in terms of a giant space squid the thing was completely alien, unknown.

"Since it's discovery in 2010 NASA locked up all records of the thing and only released them after the Ceph invasion, even then they only told the highest authority." The image disappeared and Barnes returned with an irritated expression.

Hanna stood stunned for a moment before asking, "highest authority?"

"Oh you know, presidents, prime ministers the usual." Barnes scolded before continuing. "They should have told us instead, the military, the people who will actually do something about it!" Hanna was surprised by his outburst usually he was calm, collected, but this? Something wasn't right.

"What's your problem Barnes," she asked though not unkindly.

He sighed, lowering his head before replying softly. "I don't know Shepard, something about this thing just rubs me the wrong way, if you know what I mean." Hanna nodded, she had the same feeling in 2024 when the fleet was called to Lingshan back when she was still a captain.

Barnes sighed one last time before replacing his helmet and addressing her. "We now have updated coordinates on the thing's location, find it and investigate then report back in 24 hours understood?"

Hanna smiled while putting her helmet back on. "Your not in a position to order me around Barnes," she joked.

"Ha ha, 24 hours, good luck." He hesitated, "and stay safe, I'm low on people to trust down here." With that the hologram blinked out leaving her in silence.

"**Coordinates received**." Josh intoned.

"Send them to the bridge, tell them to plot a course."

"**Orders received**." She sighed heavily leaning on the holotable for support, this was going to be a long day.

* * *

Nazara systems sluggishly rebooted after 49842 years adrift, memory banks struggling to remember his last memory file before deactivation.

Ah yes, the Protheans. A small group attempted to prolong their species harvest by hiding behind a seemingly dormant relay, cowering on the fourth planet of the system. Though it had nearly been over looked an indoctrinated individual transmitted its location and he was diverted from his duties as vanguard. He had utterly destroyed them, no trace of that place remained. Not even enough for the new species of this system to find anything larger than microscopic dust. Once the facility was gone he had chosen to wait the long cycle in the current system, it would give him an opportunity to let the species evolve under his guidance. Then when the time was right, control them completely.

As his processors fully reboot, an irregularity from other cycles made itself known. Unless the time has come for the harvest or he was directly discovered by anyone he was not supposed to awake from his slumber. His scanners determined that the space around him was unoccupied by any vessels except for the rock organics labeled as, asteroids. Also unless his internal time line was off the harvest was still 158 years ahead of his awakining. As he continued to puzzle over these problems he detected an anomaly off his port bow, a ship of unknown make and completely foreign power source. This new development would prove, difficult if they were at the height of their power. No matter, these organics would tremble at his might when...

His systems stalled, unable to process what his scanners were telling him. Synthesis. The organics on the vessel were the perfection that his kind had been searching for.

This species. Perfect.

* * *

Hanna griped the arms of her chair nervously, and the creek of the warping metal didn't help much. The fold had been successful taking them within 10000 km of the thing which was currently drifting in front of the Explorer, no more than 2 km away. The entire bridge was silent and a sense of foreboding had settled over the ship in the presence of this hulk.

"Scan complete," the tactical officer bent over his screen taping frantically.

"Incredible," he breathed. Releasing her death grip on the chair, Hanna stood and made her way to tactical station.

"It's an AI, impossibly old." He hit a few more buttons. "SECOND can't get a confirmed reading on its age, but it's placing it's last activation at nearly 50000 years ago." Hanna considered this new information before asking the one question on everyone's mind.

"Can we kill it?"

Tactical shrugged. "I don't know yet, SECOND is still analyzing its armor."

"Any shields?"

"We won't know till it activates them ma'am," he resumed typing on his screen. "We're running a full spectrum scan, estimated completion time is 2 hours."

She sighed trying to rub her forehead through her helmet, this was going to long wait. She turned to leave when the unthinkable happened.

"**Alert! Unknown power surge detected. Foreign AI is rebooting**." Hanna stopped dead, this was bad. An alien ship with unknown capabilities against her fresh off the ship yards light frigate.

"Divert all power to armor and weapons," she ordered jumped back to tactical. "I want every single SECOND protecting all vital systems and working on a counter offensive, understood!"

"Yes ma'am!" She calmly walked back to chair and sat down, if a CO lost their cool then the entire ship would follow. She would not let that happen, but now they played the waiting game. The entire ship was silent, everyone holding their breath for the tinniest movement from the vessel.

The alert came so suddenly and unexpected that she jumped, it wasn't from tactical but communication.

The comms officer hesitated before saying. "Its hailing us ma'am, orders?"

Second first contact in 5 years, was humanity on a bad luck streak or something? "Alright comms ready a reply, Josh start recording."

"**Recording**."

She breathed deeply before starting. "I am Admiral Shepard of the UTN Explorer, we come in peace."

"**Recording complete. Message sent**."

The voice in the reply was as emotionless as SECOND yet sounded old and powerful.

"_**I am Sovereign**_."

* * *

Here is the FLT systems that I am using:

The Ceph had two different means of space travel; one of them was directly opening a portal from one place to the other, which required already built "space bridges". The second was a system of FLT where their ships would fold space by firing a invisible Directed Energy Beam almost instantaneously at the targeted space and, acting almost like a harpoon when pulled taut, pull the targeted space almost to touching the craft and pull the ship over the fold to the target before releasing the fold and resuming normal space, turning a five year trips to seconds.

I have honestly no idea how or what Ceph actually use for FLT and I looked every where I could so if you don't approve please don't judge me.


	3. Chapter 3: Wise Council

Thank you for all the great reviews I will keep on trying to deliver story you want.

Also I messed up on my humanity's abilities in chapter 1, I went back and changed them just to let you know.

* * *

December 15, 2025

Earth

The Pentagon UTA headquarters

The silence that followed Admiral Shepard's report was absolute, everyone was stunned at what they had just heard.

The alien AI known as Sovereign was part of a highly advanced race of machines. Though Sovereign had given the admiral no official designation of his race it supplied the term, reaper, as it's unofficial title.

First contact had gone well enough though Sovereign had kept on calling humanity perfection. When asked about it the AI went into monolog, as Shepard described, about its species goal to bring order to chaos. This goal would continue until they had found perfect unity between organic and machine, humanity was the most perfect blend that they ever found. Now Sovereign said it had to wait 158 years until the cycle ends and the final harvest would began and full synthesis would be achieved in the galaxy.

This brought up a new question, what was the harvest? Sovereign had gone into detail about the cycle of extinction, harvesting advanced civilizations every 50000 years to prevent the chaos from consuming the galaxy. But because humanity had achieved synthesis they would be spared, but the other species of the galaxy would would be harvested and the reapers would join human kind in this "glorious" new age. After that Sovereign promptly went back into stasis after saying that humanity should prepare for its coming future.

The Explorer had immediately returned to earth and the entire UTA board was assembled to discus this new development. Over 150 people sat in the large circular conference room, dressed in an assortment of fashions that befitted their rank except for the military officials in their nanoshells. The room was still silent after listening to the recording of Sovereign describing the cycle of extinction.

Finally, David Anderson, Master General of the forces of earth spoke up. "So this thing believes that we are, technically, the chosen ones?"

Admiral Shepard stood from her seat. "It appears so general," she replied.

"And these reapers," Anderson continued. "Are going to wipe out every single organic species in the galaxy just for automatic coexistence with us? I'm calling bullshit right there."

"Not to mention," Directer Gould of the UTA R&D department spoke up. "Do they even know that this "synthesis" only occurred by accident? If we told them that this only happened because of Ceph technology, would they use it to spread synthesis or would they wipe out everyone anyway?" He sighed, "and personally I wouldn't want to be allied to a race of killing machines."

"The entire human race is a killing machine Gould," Jack Harper of the Cerberus defense program rebuked. "And your personal opinion doesn't matter but these killing machines, as you put it, will help humanity advance more then we can possibly imagine."

"We barley survived the Ceph," shouted general Barnes from his seat in the crowd. "What makes you think that the reapers are any better?"

"We didn't survive the Ceph, we thrived following their attack! and the reapers can once again help humanity to ascend greater heights."

Barnes groaned in frustration, "Does the termination of the entire galaxy justify it!?"

"Why do you defend them, general? What have the other species, if are are any, done for us to deserve our sympathies?"

"What have they done! They haven't attacked us for one thing and there is a chance for peaceful coexistence between us!" Murmurs of agreement filled the room.

"And also," Barnes continued. "This is only one reaper that has been asleep for 50000 years. What if the others no longer follow the same goal? What if Sovereign has gone rampant and is talking gibberish about us being saved? The simplest course of action is to destroy this monster and prevent the cycle from happening!"

"DESTROY IT!" Harper jumped to his feet, "you would destroy humanity's greatest chance for domination!

"Purging the galaxy of all life does not justify this," Barnes hissed.

"Correct me if I'm wrong general. But you purged the Ceph from earth for the sake of humanity."

"I was just the catalyst for..."

"Exactly," Harper interrupted. "You were just the catalyst for the Ceph's destruction and our evolution. But now humanity is the catalyst in events far beyond us, leading us to ether further advancement or destruction. So you suggesting that we destroy our one chance for salvation is madness!" The room went dead silent.

"Madness," Barnes slowly began to reach for his sidearm before Anderson stopped him.

"General! Stand down!" Seething, Barnes dropped heavily into his chair glaring at Harper who just returned it.

"Thank you both of you for your arguments," Anderson then addressed Shepard. "Did you find out anything else admiral?"

"Yes we did Anderson," she walked to the center of the room where a large holotable presided. "Josh, transfer files 214 and 220."

"**Transfer complete**." The table lit up reveling the image of a reaper construct. Two long forks with two rotating rings in the middle.

"Sovereign called this a mass relay, a device that can provide almost instantaneous travel across the galaxy." This was met with remarks of disbelief and amazement before Anderson silenced them with a raised hand.

"One of these," he gestured to the image, "can take you across the galaxy?"

"Not an individual relay, no. But the reapers made a network of them through out the galaxy, so technically you could go any where." The image disappeared being replaced by a map of the galaxy, with all the relays marked. Though a question nagged at Andersen's mind.

"Why did the reapers build the relays?"

Shepard conversed with Josh silently for a moment before replying. "They made the relays to trap other species in a particular branch of technology. Let them become reliant on a particular substance and they won't be able to develop anything off the branch. Making them easier to destroy when the time comes."

"What exactly do they come to rely on?" Shouted a voice.

"Its called element zero," Shepard replied. The hologram changed again, this time showing atomic information. "it has an atomic number of zero and a rather interesting ability. I won't bore you with exact details, but when an electrical charge is sent through it is able to create a field in which mass is ether raised or lowered depending on the charge."

"And the reaper willing gave you all this information," Anderson asked incredulously.

"Well not all of it," She awkwardly replied, "and there is still more that you haven't seen yet."

"Very well," said Anderson rising from his chair. "But it will have to wait. For now what do we do with Sovereign?" The obvious cries to destroy the thing rang forth along with the shouts to let the reapers come, until Anderson had enough.

"Thank you for your input everyone, but we still have 158 years to decide on that subject. But now anyone with a short term solution please speak up." Arguments broke out trying to decide what to do, until they were all silenced by Gould's suggestion to build a station and to study Sovereign further. This idea was met with no rebuttal.

* * *

January 01, 2026: The Explorer leaves earth with orders to blueprint plans for the Genesis station project. On earth a newly designed assault frigate is put under construction.

January 03, 2026: While working on Sovereign workers report of an energy field surrounding the reaper, and all SECOND AIs present report of neurological intrusion. All construction on genesis has been stopped until further investigation.

January 10, 2026: The indoctrination theory is founded, it is unknown if Sovereign controls this or if it's an uncontrolled ability. Genesis station's construction has been moved to an asteroid a short distance away outside of the indoctrination field.

February 02, 2026: Genesis now nearing 25% completion, new firewalls are developed to counter Sovereign's indoctrination. Study on the reaper continues.

May 11, 2026: The assault frigate, UTN Legionary, leaves earth dry dock. It's first mission is to investigate the mass relay reveled to be in the sol system. Genesis station is completed and full fledged study on Sovereign begins.

* * *

May 12, 2026

Genesis station

Lab complex

Barnes sighed as he stared out the window at Sovereign, it was mocking him. The great destroyer of hundreds of cycles sat helpless before them and they were doing nothing to stop it! Even though the Ceph had reinforced his hatred of all extraterrestrials he couldn't help but feel guilty. He didn't care about the Ceph, they could burn for all he cared, but what about the other species out there? What were they like, did they have family's like back on earth, were they like humans in that respect? Knowing that there was intelligent life out there made him feel guilty that they were going to let them to die.

"You OK man?" Barnes jumped at Gould's sudden appearance, honestly that man was sneaky as hell even without cloak.

"Yeah, yeah I am." He lied turning to face Gould, the man had really buffed out since 2024. Over top of his nanoshell he wore an old leather satchel, smart idea, nanoshells had no pockets.

"Good," Gould joined him at the window. They stood in silence for a while, staring at the vessel out side the window.

"You don't really like it, do you?" He asked, gesturing at Sovereign.

Barnes glared at him. "I don't like it? That's an understatement. We have a chance to end their cycle for the sake of the galaxy and we're throwing it away!"

"We're not throwing anything away Barnes, and there's still 157 years before the cycle continues." Gould replied pulling a data pad from his satchel and looking over it. "And besides we're only studying it, what harm is there in that?"

"True."

They stood silently for a minute before Gould handed the pad to Barnes. "Take a look at this."

He skimmed down the text, becoming more interested in what he saw. "Your suggesting we make our own mass relays?" He asked hand the pad back.

"Why not? Their better and more efficient then the Harpoon for galactic travel. Not to mention it'll be easy, Sovereign had the plans for them."

"It gave them to you?"

"Nope, we hacked it right from his hard drive." Gould sounded amused from behind his helmet.

"You what!" Barnes panicked. "What if it woke up when you were doing!"

"Calm down man, Sovereign is a heavy sleeper to begin with. Add on almost 300 AIs to keep him offline and he can't hear, see or feel anything."

Barnes lowered his head, embarrassed at his little panic attack. "Is all you want Gould," he asked.

Gould hesitated for a moment before replying, "one more thing."

He reached into his satchel and dug around looking for something. Finding it he withdrew his hand and presented the object to Barnes. It was a Warhammer 40k Ultramarine figurine complete with blue armor and bolter but nothing special.

"You, want to play warhammer?" Barnes asked confused.

Gould's shoulders slumped. "No I don't want to play it, I want to make one! Think about it, we already have the strength. We just make the armor light then cover it with nanoweave and replace the backpack with a power source then, BOOM! You're a walking tank!"

Barnes was surprised, the man was brilliant but a complete geek. Still, why hadn't anyone thought about this earlier, it was brilliant! "OK, but why are you asking me?"

"Because I need authorization from someone high up to make the first prototype, could you?" Gould asked once again holding out the pad.

Sighing he took the pad and gave it his signature. "One prototype and on your own time, got it," he asked giving back the pad. But Gould had already snatched it and was sprinting out of the labs, disappearing in seconds. Leaving Barnes standing and starring at where he had left.

"What a geek."

* * *

Genesis Station

Office block

Jack Harper paced in his office overlooking the station, the glass beneath his feet gave him an astounding view of the lab complex below him.

Though it was standard safety in space to have full nanoshell coverage at all times, he fancied wearing an expensive looking suit. It was more liberating then the skintight nanoshell, and anyways he was alone so no one would comment on his style of fashion.

His thoughts turned once again to the matter at hand and he scowled. How could that idiot General Barnes want to destroy this masterpiece, this was humanity's evolution if not salvation. The reapers would come and purge the galaxy of all alien threats leaving it open for humanity to spread.

But a man once said, "this town ain't big enough for the two of us." The reapers themselves would be the biggest concern once they had done their job, they needed a way to control them once the cycle was over. Destroying them would be out of the question, who in their right mind would destroy such marvels of engineering. Fortunately he already had a plan, but first he would need to obtain the one hardest ingredient, reaper program code. It wasn't something that could obtained from the body, he needed to get it directly from the AI itself.

"EDI ready the intrusion."

"_Of course sir_," came a distinctly feminine voice quite unlike the other SECOND AIs. Not only was Cerberus in the defense league but also in the R&D as well, many advancements and experiments came from them. Like the AI interchangeable settings package, it let you change the voice of it as well as other options about your SECOND. However what he had was entirely different, Cerberus had developed a coding package that would enable a SECOND to develop their own personalities and other perks and become true artificial intelligence. It was both illegal and dangerous. Illegal because of humanity's unjustified fear of AI overlords, and dangerous because of the unknown effects it would have on the body and mind. He was experiencing no problems with EDI except for brief bouts of spontaneous thinking, which were easily fixed. EDI was evolving far beyond his expectations, though she could be removed and destroyed if she started to rebel. She was also locked inside his shell unable to communicate with anything on the outside and spread the code.

"_Intrusion ready Mr. Harper_." The intrusion was an attempt to attain reaper code through the simplest way available, talking. Though Sovereign might not approve of being woken to find itself being studied, he had a plan for that too. He would communicate with Sovereign through a secure comm channel while 50 Cerberus scientists and AIs on board the reaper would feed its scanners false information. Making it think that it was alone and that the call was coming from earth. So it was a simple matter of keeping it busy while his people downloaded the code directly from its core, and anyway he was curious about one subject that Sovereign had neglected to tell them.

"Begin." He said walking over to his desk in the middle of the room along with his privet terminal.

After a few moments the voice of Sovereign from the screen. "_**What is the meaning of this? The **__**cycle has not yet come**_."

"Hello, I am the Illusive Man," he began, just thinking up the name. "I would like to know more about the reapers, if it's alright."

Sovereign took a long time to reply. "_**What is it you wish to know**_."

Jack smiled. "I want to know more about your indoctrination ability."

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Crysis, mass effect or warhammer


	4. Chapter 4: First Steps

May 25, 2026

New York

Cerberus building

Jack Harper gazed out onto the city below, contemplating the reaper dilemma.

The intrusion had been a success and the reaper code was downloaded without trouble. The only problem was the massive size of the program and the time it took to download. Though talking to Sovereign had been easy, the reaper seemed eager to share its knowledge with them, though it's constant monologue frustrated him too no end. But, he looked at the large memory storage device on his desk, it had been worth it.

Also in his chat with Sovereign he had learned some very interesting information about indoctrination. Eventual total control over a person's mind and body, the prospect of this thrilled him. While the rest of humanity might see this as crime against nature he saw opportunity. Sabotage, assassinations and other dangerous tasks behind enemy lines could be carried out by the enemy. No more risking lives over high risk or suicide missions. But unfortunately the technology just wasn't available and unless they wanted to completely dissect Sovereign for the generator then it was out of their reach, for now.

But now that they had the reaper code then project HARVEST could begin. Sovereign had told him all about the Catalyst AI on board the main Citadel relay, a troubling adversary but not impossible. Reprogramming every reaper while another AI was able to undo their work would be difficult. So there was only one choice left to them, the Citadel must be destroyed and the Catalyst along with it.

He smiled, for an ancient AI of untold destruction Sovereign was incredibly naive. It gave humanity all this knowledge and told them to prepare, well they prepared alright. The reapers wouldn't stand a chance after the last harvest, and humans will stand as the dominate unchallenged rulers of the galaxy.

But first things first, he turned to his desk where the MSD sat. "EDI, I'm giving you authorization to call the lads down stairs. Tell them I have a package for them and they'll receive instructions up here."

"_Yes Illusive Man_." He smiled, Illusive man, he rather liked the name.

* * *

June 01, 2026

Genesis station

Office complex

Barnes had to give Harper credit, the man really knew how to make a comfortable office. After the bastard had left back to earth on the Legionary's return trip, things had been easier for him. The only problem, he thought turning to the massive window, was that Sovereign took up 95% of the view outside.

But still, it was there and he had taken it to get out of the broom closet that the designers had the nerve to call an office. Not to mention he'd wanted to search every inch of the place for anything that Jack had left behind. But ether the man wasn't doing anything bad or he was really good at covering his tracks.

Though he would love to continue searching for Jack's privet life, he had work to do. He dropped into the chair behind the desk, sighing in relief when it didn't groan in protest over his weight and brought up relevant files to his visor.

First in line was the new WarHammer project, which Gould had unknowingly created when he wanted to make an ultramarine. Apparently Gould must have been successful, because a short time ago the R&D had swooped in and classified everything related to the project. Now Gould was asking for authorization to find users for the WarHammer, which Barnes promptly denied. He was going to need to see what Gould was working on before he authorized anything else.

Second was Project Eden, humanities first step into colonization. The Explorer would be the first ship to pass though the newly named, Charon Relay, to investigate a chosen planet. From the map that Sovereign gave them they had chosen a local garden world in the Exodus cluster to hold the first human colony. Though Barnes was concerned about the multiple relay jumps between the two planets. They would have to build a station or something in Arcturus to insure that the system remained human space. Now all they were waiting for was the Explorer to finish with its retrofits. A new more powerful Harpoon drive, upgraded Archangel laser, close quarters plasma cannons from reverse engineered Ceph technology and the new Orbital Drop Pods for infantry.

In fact, he checked the time on his visor, they should be done any minute now.

"**UTN Explorer has left docking bay 1**," SECOND informed him.

He smiled,"good luck Shepard, I think we're all going to need it."

* * *

June 01, 2026: UTN Explorer successfully passes the through Charon relay, surveying planet Eden Prime now in progress.

June 20, 2026: Construction of the colony, New Vegas begins.

July 10, 2026: Construction is completed and the Legionary begins to transport colonists. Current population of Eden Prime is 350, more expected soon.

July 31, 2026: Humanities first off world shipyard, Thor's Forge, is founded in the asteroid belt. Construction on the new earth defense fleet is underway.

August 09, 2026: WarHammer is given both test subjects and officially moved to Eden Prime for testing under the authorization of Jack Harper.

* * *

August 13, 2026

Eden Prime

Testing zone 2

Gould gazed around him in awe of the nature around him. Beautiful, peaceful, all natural organic scenery. It was perfect. He was standing in a clearing among the vast forests of Eden Prime, scattered around him were rocks of various sizes.

He could have kissed Harper for giving him this chance, but given the conditions that the man had put him under and not to mention Gould's general dislike for him so that kiss just wouldn't happen. One such condition was stepping out of the VTOL behind him. Miranda Lawson, Harper's personal representative in the WarHammer's testing.

"What's going on Gould, where are they?" He grinned, Miranda hadn't been there on the 11th for the WarHammer's strength test. She had only got here yesterday, so it gave him a real opportunity to test the stealth systems. He didn't tell her what part of the trials he would be running with her.

"Wellll," he drawled out. "Why don't you try and find them." She scowled at him, before activating nanovision and searching around the clearing.

"Orders sir," the call came suddenly making him jump.

"Just wait," he whispered back. "Let her search a little, but don't do anything! Wait for my signal, OK?"

"Understood," the comm went silent. John was a good soldier and commander, perfect for WarHammer.

Miranda kept on searching for the next 15 minutes, and still she found nothing. He had made the WarHammers to be able to hid from all but the most advanced scanners, Miranda wouldn't be able to find anything. Finally she stormed back to Gould, body language showing anger and frustration through her nanoshell.

"Are you trying to mock me," she hissed. "I was called out here to see what your creations could do. But there is nothing here."

"Nothing? Are you sure about that?" She gave him a death glare.

"There's Rocks if that's what your saying."

"Then good job," he grinned at her. "You probably found one of them." He then proceed into the middle, shouting and clapping.

"Well done guys! You can come out now!" Around him the outlines of four massive boulders shimmered before dissipating. Miranda couldn't help but gape at the 23 foot tall suits of armor that towered above her. They were exactly like the small figurine that Gould had showed her in the VTOL, but she doubted they were supposed to be that large. They also carried one of the largest hand held weapons that she had ever seen.

"You like them?" She started at Gould's sudden appearance by her side.

"State of the art nanite holographic projectors, perfect for hiding in plain sight." He continued, going up to the nearest WarHammer and taping its leg. "Titanium-C, a combination of both human and Ceph alloys covered in synthetic nanoweave. Powered by a reverse engineered Ceph plasma reactor." He finished grinning at her.

The shock Miranda had felt wore off and was replaced with curious fascination.

"Why make them so big though," she asked, walking up and inspecting the armor.

He shrugged, "bigger is better. Not to mention powerful."

"Alright," she said turning to Gould. "But how do these things work? Do you actually grow a person to that size?"

"I had considered that, but then I found something easier." He motioned up to the helmet and shouted, "Show her John!"

As Miranda watched, the helmet discontented with a hiss and lifted up allowing a man to crawl out of the neck section. As the man crawled out she saw some kind of liquid flow off him back into the armor.

"The armor is completely filled with a new nanogel that I invented," Gould explained gazing proudly at his creations. "Though technically it's all just liquid nanoshell. When a person becomes submerged, the gel will temporarily merge with him. Transferring motor control from his body to the armor, think of it as a body extension." Miranda stared at him, blankly.

Gould sighed. "In simple terms, it becomes your body." She nodded before an alert drew her attention to her visor.

"That's impressive, but right now can they fight? Do those guns of theirs work?" She asked urgently.

"The bolters, yeah they work. But we still haven't tested their full armor modes yet. Why?"

"Because we have a big problem," she said transferring the alert to Gould. His eyes widened at what he saw, UTN Alert 027, unknown alien presence in orbit. Prepare for attack.

* * *

Its a short chapter, I know. But I need to collect my thoughts and what ever brains I have left for the next one, though it will take a while because I have summer jobs to do.


	5. Xar'Karoth

A/N Hello, sorry for the long wait, I've been having a bad month.

Anyway, without further ado: Chapter 5.

* * *

August 13, 2026

Eden Prime

Cerberus Research Outpost: 1

1 hour before UTN Alert 027

Doctor Marcus Flint frowned at the data pad clutched in his hand, an inspection, here? In the middle of nowhere? He looked around at the modest collocation of buildings that made up Outpost 1, three long movable trailers arranged in a triangle around an elevator going down into the caverns below the surface. If he listened hard enough he could hear the rest of his coworkers in the recreation trailer, talking over a glass of new Zero Volt Vodka.

He grinned as he remembered the stuff, the buzz of electricity that it gave people was pleasant experience when you wanted to forget stuff.

"**Incoming transmission**." He groaned as this intrusion to his thoughts.

"Patch it through," He said with reluctance, then to the caller. "What do you want Maria?"

"**Marcus, you have to come and see this**," A worried voice sounded in his hear.

"Maria, I've told you before. I've been over every inch of the place twice, there's nothing down their that can come remotely close to surprising me now." Maria Walker, the youngest person on the small research team of ten, was both a blessing and a curse. She was a genius with technology and biology, but she sometimes lacked commonsense and restraint when she was excited. From her first day here she had almost killed them all twice with her meddling.

"**Yeah, I know that**," the reply came."**But honestly, I found something in section 7. Just p****lease, just come and see it.**"

"Fine! What is it?"

"**No! You need to come down here**." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"You aren't going to leave me alone on this, are you?

"**No.**"

"Well, why me and not any of the others?"

"**Are you kidding me! They're probably to high and drunk to even understand me**!" She probably wasn't to far from the truth. Turning to look he could see the trailer visibly shake on its supports and the voices inside turn into cheers. He really didn't want know what was happening in there.

"What happens if I refuse?"

"**Then I trash everything down here and shit hits the fan**." Her voice had turned threatening. "**Get dressed and get down here, now**."

"Get dressed," he looked down at his current attire, black T-shirt, jeans and runners. "I don't walk around naked you know."

"**You know what I mean, if your not down here in three minutes I start pushing, starting now**." The call disconnected, leaving Marcus fuming. That little bitch.

Seeing no other option, he mentally triggered nanite overflow and looked down at his hands. At a rapid pace, tiny black hexagons formed across his skin while his clothes instantly tightened around his body as the nanites they were made of reattached to his skin. The coltan-titanium pieces came next, growing out of the bones that they lay over. The two components merged together seamlessly over his body, forming the advanced hardware that was the nanoshell. Marcus shut his eyes as the overflow reached his head and formed his helmet, opening them to see the familiar sight of his HUD appear in his vision. Reading his thoughts, SECOND put up waypoint on the elevator.

"Yeah, I know, I'm going." He muttered, canceling the waypoint as he stepped on the platform and hit the down button. The elevator silently lowered itself into the ground, it's open sides showing the layers of dirt and rock as it it went deeper. The silence made him reflect on the events of the last two years.

Since humanity entered space Cerberus was far ahead of the UTN in terms of exploration. The Stealth Recon Vessel-01 class Frigate was the main vessel of the privet Cerberus fleet. Developed secretly under the Atlantic ocean in 2025, these small 50 meter, ten man vessels were capable of hiding from the most advanced scanners anywhere. Along with unmatched speed and maneuverability they could easily out-fly and out-hide anything in the UTN fleet. Though their weapons were limited to a single point-to-point plasma cannon and their armor was weak against all kinds of fire, making them less then ideal for hit and run tactics.

Already Cerberus had seven SRV-01cFs in service and had successful mapped out eight mass relay systems surrounding the Sol system. Anything that they found was classified beyond top secret, Marcus personally thought they found other alien civilization that were caught in the reapers "Eezo trap."

"**Alert, external temperature decreasing**." He looked to the elevator's hand railings and saw a thin layer of frost cover the metal, it hardly surprised him now and cold and other temperatures couldn't touch him through his shell. But it brought his mind to the reason they were here. A Ceph construct, hidden under the surface of Eden Prime.

The descending elevator entered into a large underground cavern, reviling the outer hull of the alien building buried in the rock wall. He had seen the remnants of Ceph hives back on earth, while they were similar this was something completely different. The most prominent difference was the colors, earthbound Ceph constructs were primarily varying shades of grey with red lights. This one was still grey though it had a blueish tint, and any visible lights or glowing power conduits were bright blue.

The elevator shuttered as it hit the bottom, lowering the safety rails allowing Marcus to step out onto a long walkway leading to the entrance. The visible armor was smooth, broken only by the large gash in its side, evidence that the place was attacked at some point. He continued along the walkway, occasionally slipping on patches of ice that had formed on the metal until it lead him to the construct's wound. Entering through the gap he couldn't help but stop and stare, whatever weapon that dealt this blow must be incredibly powerful to carve through 3 meter thick armor.

The gap entered into a large empty cavernous room, dim blue lighting from overhead provided enough light to see an open archway on the far side. His heavy footsteps echoed with each step as he made his way across to the apparent doorway.

"**You down here yet**?" He jumped at the voice that blared in his ear.

"Dammit Maria!" He shouted, stepping through the archway into a long corridor. "Yes, I'm down here! Just set a waypoint," he finished exasperated. A marker popped up on HUD, 4.5 kilometers from his current location.

"Shit," he sighed before turning left and headed in its general direction.

The entire ship was a maze of twisting hexagon shaped corridors almost four meters tall, grey metal plates covered everything and a dim blue light came from glowing lines across the ceiling. Large closed doors appeared occasionally on ether side, leading to unknown parts of the ship. The entire thing made Marcus nervous, the dim lighting, closed doors that they couldn't open, and no trace of any Ceph at all. The last one worried him most of all, the Ceph never left anything they built unguarded. But so far nether he or anyone else had seen any squid, living or dead.

Ever since this place had been found five months ago by a Cerberus SRV-01cF it had been kept top secret, partially to keep project Eden from being stopped and also to keep the thing from waking up. The UTN was completely in the dark and no one but Harper, the highest Cerberus officers and the few at Outpost 1 knew of its existence. If it had gone public then possibly all colonization efforts would be stopped until the thing was destroyed, and that would be too big of a loss of alien tech when they still had so much to learn on the Ceph. That was the reason that Outpost 1 was so small, it was easy to maintain and not attract the attention of the UTN.

He turned into another corridor, Maria's waypoint was only 2 km away now and apparently she was in what the crew had dubbed the "bedroom" of the ship. With a sinking feeling he quickened his pace to a light run, if she was opening a new door then they could be in big trouble. The bedroom was essentially a corridor full of cryo-chambers that ran on for a good kilometer, and every single one of them was sealed. No one was willing to open one for fear of any Ceph on the inside waking up, but Maria had no such reservations.

He turned again entering the "bedroom". Closed doors now appeared on both sides at regular intervals with frost coating their seams sealing them shut. He could see Maria, now only two hundred meters away down the corridor, kneeling beside one of the doors. He sighed in relief and dropped his speed to walking, she hadn't awoken or blown up anything so everything was alright, for now.

"Took you long enough," she said as he drew near.

"Traffic was bad," he joked.

"Ha ha ha, you crack me up." She leaned her head forward in concentration, only then did he notice that she had removed a panel from the wall beside the cell and was fiddling with something inside.

"You know you're not allowed to do that, right?" He motioned to the panel on the floor.

"I know."

"And your not going to stop, are you?

"Good deduction Sherlock." Marcus sighed in frustration, sometimes it was impossible to make her listen to sense or orders.

"OK," he said ignoring her insult. "You called me down for something, what is it?" Maria delicately removed her hands from the hole in the wall, before standing and motioning down the corridor.

His gaze followed her finger down the hall to the specified door and his blood froze in his veins, the door was torn apart. He slowly approached, now regretting his choice to not bring a gun of some kind.

The damage was worse than he had originally thought. Plasma had melted the inside of the door and something had clawed its way out of the hole, yet he couldn't clarify if it was Ceph at all. The claw marks around the edges were too long and deep to be anything related.

Though he had only fought the Ceph in a lab, trying to counter the early spore, he had seen pictures and these marks were unlike anything he had ever seen.

He tentatively reached out a hand and gripped the edge of the hole. It was still slightly warm.

"Its just been made recently," said Maria appearing by his side. "But look at what's inside."

Marcus lifted his eyes and saw the strangest piece of machinery he had ever seen. It was a thick tripod with a long spike sticking out of the top with a dull grey color and covered in Ceph body fluids and flesh. He gagged as a terrible smell hit his nostrils before his helmet filtered them out.

"What is that thing," he asked standing away from the hole. "And when did the cryo quit? Shit it smells bad!"

"Answering in order, I have no idea but I thought you would know. The cryo chamber shut down around two hours ago and I know it smells bad."

"How do you know it was two hours ago?"

"That was when my shift ended, I had just gotten back to the elevator when I realized I'd forgotten something here. I came back to get it and found this," she motioned to the hole again.

"Could the cryo have shut off before then?"

"I don't see how, the chamber was still active when I was here earlier."

Taking hesitant steps, Marcus climbed through the hole and approached the device. With his visor activated he began to run a basic scan, looking for clues it might have.

"**Scan complete, processing... Alien ****genetic signatures ****detected... ****Alert! Genetic irregularities detected. Sample required for further annalists.**"

"Anything," he heard Maria call from outside the chamber.

"Just a minute," he called back before he returned his focus to his AI. "SECOND, scan the device and cross reference it to everything in available data banks."

"**Scan complete, ****processing****..." **Across his vision images of random objects appeared and vanished at breakneck speed as SECOND searched for anything resembling the device.

"**Cross reference complete, match found. File: Sovereign interior – section 23**." A picture of a cluster of spikes appeared surrounded by the dim lighting of the reaper's internal workings.

"Reaper," he muttered to himself, confused. What was a reaper artifact doing on a Ceph ship?

"Well what is it," Maria asked again from outside.

"Its reaper, I think." He called back beginning to examine the device in more detail. "Couldn't you have scanned it earlier and saved me the trouble?"

"I'm not high enough to access anything over security level 3," her voice became muted as she moved back down the hall. "That's way too low for any reaper stuff."

He nodded in silent agreement as he reached out a hand and poked a large clump of Ceph flesh hanging on the spike, allowing SECOND to get it's sample.

"**Genetic s****ample acquired, processing...**" He withdrew his hand and studied the small clump of flesh that stuck to his finger. Whatever color it might have had was gone, replaced by a lifeless grey that seemed so unnatural, even for Ceph. He was about to leave when a question came to mind.

"SECOND, did Sovereign ever say anything about the Ceph?"

"**Negative."**

"Nothing at all?"

"**Negative.**"

"Broaden search parameters to any reaper databanks currently decoded."

"**Processing... … … ****Negative.**"

"That doesn't make sense," he muttered to himself. "The Ceph have been on earth for millions of years, how could the reapers miss a species that advanced for so long?"

"**Unknown**." He sighed, wishing for the silence of his thoughts from before the Ceph invasion.

Making a dismissive gesture he flicked the clump of flesh back at the spike before he exited the chamber. Pushing his questions to the back of his mind, he approached Maria who was back to working at the hole where he'd first found her.

"So..." He drawled out, coming up behind her. "If the problem was back there, why this so important?"  
He gestured to the hole that she was working on.

"Surveillance," she replied remaining focused on her work.

"On what?"

"On whatever is in this cryo-chamber," she nodded her head to the door next to her.

"Why?"

"Because, whatever came out of that," she nodded towards the broken door behind him. "Came here, tore off the panel and fried the controls for this room." She twisted her body away allowing him a view inside of her working space.

Her hands were buried in a writhing mass of clear tentacles buried in the back off the hole. As he watched, sparks jumped from her hands onto the mass and the places where they landed flared bright blue momentarily before it grew dark again.

"Bio-mechanical circuitry," Maria explained, resuming her original position and blocking his view. "It took awhile to clean out most the plasma damage, but after that it just started growing back together. Now all I need to do is send the right signals through... Ah! There we go." In response to hear word, a holographic screen appeared in front of the door, floating just above it's surface.

"Now we're getting somewhere," she said excitedly, rising to her feet and moving towards the screen. Though her mood was instantly put down but a simple fact on the screen.

"Marcus, you wouldn't happen to read alien, would you?" With an exasperated sigh, he went up and began to study the screen in detail.

It was blue, which he had come to expect from everything in this place. The small 1 by 1 foot screen was filed with neatly organized rows of Ceph runes and he couldn't help but marvel at them. The runes were completely unintelligible, but their form and the way the individual strokes flowed together in a complete unbroken sentence across the screen was amazing. It was like someone looking at Chinese or Japaneses for the first time, admiring it but completely unable to understand.

"We have speech translation software," he said slowly. "But I don't think anything we have will be able to translate this."

"When did that come come out," she asked surprised.

"It was with the latest SECOND upgrade, Cerberus standard. Didn't you read the description?"

"No, its like the terms of use thing in any video game installation, no one ever reads that anymore."

"True." He reached out towards the hologram when suddenly the floor under them shook violently, sending them stumbling around. Struggling to keep his balance, Marcus shot out his hand to door through the hologram in an attempt to steady himself. But the hologram in his way instantly solidified when he made contact and his hand landed on a line of script before he was tossed to the ground. The shaking continued on for a few more seconds before it subsided and then disappeared all together.

"**No injuries detected, clear to proceed.**"With a groan, he slowly rose to his feet and offered a hand to Maria who was still on the ground. She was about to take it, when her head turned towards the hole she had been working in.

"That's never happened before," she said worriedly. The hole was filled with a glowing blue light. Kneeling down, he saw that the tentacles in the back were glowing and pulsating light in a steady rhythm. With growing dread he looked down the corridor, every single door now had a holographic screen and the lights above were on at full strength. Full power had been restored.

A beeping sound drew his attention to the screen in front of him, the line of script he'd hit was flashing red. Then with a final beep, the screen vanished and with pops and cracks ice that had built up around the door's edges began to break off and fall to the ground.

"Oh shit."

The door let out a loud clacking sound of locks being disengaged before it slid upwards into the ceiling with a hiss. A thick mist flowed out of the chamber, blinding the two of them monumentally before it cleared and reveled what was inside.

A Ceph Commander.

They both jumped back expecting an attack, but none came. The commander was being held up in a standing position above the floor in the middle of the chamber. Suspended by thick chains around it's arms that connected to the ceiling. It's eye sockets were dark, showing that it was still asleep or something like it.

"Does it look, different to you?" Maria's voice was little more then a whisper beside him. But yes, it did look different from the rest.

It's chest was more heavily armored by three metal plates, each one had an alien rune engraved in it's surface. The gelatinous mass that made up it's body was a deep blue, the color of the ocean. It also had no built in weaponry, or at least he couldn't see any that were visible.

"It doesn't matter," he whispered back. "We should just kill it now, before it wakes up and alerts the others."

She was about to reply when they heard a low groan come from the hanging figure, like something gargling water. Slowly its eyes began to glow, not the usual red but a hard ice blue. It's visible mechanical fingers twitched then curled into fists, but it didn't make a sound. It's eyes powered up to full strength now fully awake and it stared at them, as if almost surprised to see them.

They stared at each other, no one wanting to break eye contact for fear of the other making a move. Then the Ceph began to speak it's unintelligible language of clicks, whirs and electric noises, then paused as if waiting for an answer. When none came it spoke in a louder voice and used a shorter sentence as if to say, answer me.

"SECOND, can you translate that?" Maria asked quietly.

"**Translation software initialization, stand by.**" The alien was speaking again, it's tones coming close to shouting.

"**Initialization complete."**

"..._ANSWER ME!_" The voice came suddenly in their ears making them jump slightly.

"What was your question," Marcus asked stepping forward, but it wasn't his voice that came out. Clicks and whirs took the place of the English he thought he was speaking, voicing his question in a recognizable language to the alien.

"_Who and what are you?_" The alien's voice sound mechanical coming through SECOND but it sounded like bear growling in anger. But he could hear the tones of an old war veteran, one who has seen far too much bloodshed in his life.

"Our names don't matter, but I though you know what we are, squid." The Ceph drew it's head back, obviously confused.

"_We have never encountered your race, not even before the dark age._"

"Bullshit," Marcus growled. "Your kind nearly destroyed humanity, killing every man, women and child that stood in your way." The commander's eyes glowed brightly as if he was widening them in shock.

"_Impossible! My clan would never..." _It's eyes dimmed as it realized something, then they darkened completely and it's hands clenched into fists.

"_FATHERS CURSE THE V__O__LKASAK!_" It shouted explosively, shaking in fury, making Maria shrink back. "_MAY THEY BURN IN UNQUENCHABLE FIRE FOR THEIR DEEDS!_" It ended with something between a gasp and sob. Marcus looked about nervously, afraid that the alien's shouts had awoken something else, but everything up and down the corridor was still. The commander lowered it's head to it's chest, it's eyes still "shut" tight.

"_So,_" it said quietly. "_It is my destiny, to atone for the sins of my people. My brothers!_" It spat the last word out as if tasted bad.

Before anyone could say anything else the floor once again shook, sending the two humans to the ground and the alien swinging. The shaking continued on for a good minute before it finally stopped.

"Uh... What was that?" Marcus groaned, rising to his feet and helping up Maria beside him.

"_The ship's stasis cycle has ended,_" the alien replied, looking around anxiously. "_It has risen from it's tomb after millions of years waiting._"

"This is a ship," Maria asked amazed.

"_Indeed._" A sound carried from far down the corridor, heavy footsteps stomping towards them. The alien appeared troubled.

"_My fallen brothers awaken,_" it turned to them urgently. "_Soldiers__ of humanity, __my brothers will show your kind no mercy. Whatever dwellings you have on this world will be destroyed and your people slaughtered, but I can stop this from happening!_" The footsteps were growing louder, from far off down the corridor Marcus saw a lumbering shape coming slowly closer.

"How," he asked sceptically, looking back to the Commander.

"_While the crew is infected the ship remains __pure__, __though it remains under their control. They will use to bombard your settlement from above, your people will stand no chance. But from the command deck I can regain control from them and stop this madness!_"

"What are they infected with," Maria asked in a hushed voice. The thing down the hall was growing closer by the second.

"_The curse of the machine__s._" It strained it's head to the side, listening to the approaching footsteps, before imploring them more urgently. "_The crew is not in their right minds, they will slaughter us all when they find us. Please, you must release me!_"

"You could be lying to save your own skin," Marcus replied weakly, glancing back and forth between the moving mass and the alien in front of him.

"**Genetic sample processed. Reaper implants detected. ****F****urther results pending.**" Marcus started at SECOND blaring in his ears, but he couldn't care less about that now. The thing coming down the corridor he recognized as a Ceph Devastator, but with a few horrific enhancements. Its mini-gun had appeared to be cannibalized and its parts used to make three long serrated claws on it's right hand. Pieces of it's chest armor were torn off reveling it's gel like body, it had turned a clear grey and reaper implants were visible throughout its entire body, some even covering it's armor.

The Devastator stopped a couple meters down the corridor and seemed to evaluate them, it's claws clenched and twitched in anticipation. The Commander had grown more desperate, tugging at the chains that bound it and begging them to release it.

"Why do you care if we live or die?" Marcus asked, nervously eying the Devastator's cannon. If it used that they were all dead.

"_My people have wronged you__rs__ greatly. This is the least I can do, to atone for the shame that their sins bring._"

The Devastator roared, it's normal sounds being combined with another sound, a rising screech that seemed to ring in his skull. Then it charged at them.

"**Maximum armor.**" Marcus grabbed Maria by the shoulders and threw her into the open chamber, just a split second before the Devastator swung it's claw arm and backhanded him down the corridor.

"**Energy levels depleted.**" He groaned while lying on his back, he wasn't cut out for this, he was a scientist not a soldier. He rolled onto his front and crawled to his feet.

Another roar came from behind him and he was brutally slammed into the wall by another swing, he gasped in pain as he felt his bones break from the blow. He rebounded off the wall and hit the floor, unable to hold his painfully screams as broken ribs made contact with the ground.

"**Energy restored. Maximum armor.**" He panicked when he felt the Devastator's claws wrap around his chest and he was lifted off the floor, before being slammed back down.

"**Energy levels 20%**" It lifted him again and slammed him down, making an indent in the metal floor.

"**Energy levels depleted.**" It slammed him down again and again and again. His visor cracked and every bone in his body shattered and screamed in protest.

It slammed him down one last time before he felt it release it's hold on his chest and he fought to hold back screams of agony as it's serrated claws cut through the his nanoshell and deep into his skin. Then with a final tug it flipped him onto his back.

He groaned in agony, SECOND had pumped his body full of painkillers but that could only do so much. Through his cracked visor he saw the Devastator leering down at him, it's red eyes glowing in stark contrast to it's clear gel. Then it's body leaned back as it's massive foot positioned itself above his head.

"Well... Shit." Marcus croaked out before the foot slammed down, crushing his skull like a grape. Blood flowed over the floor as his body went limp and his life fled from his body in a fountain of blood.

The Devastator removed it's foot and sniffed the corpse, satisfied that it was dead it turned back up the corridor. There were two more organics alive that needed to be silenced, Harbinger demanded it.

oOoOoOo

Maria hit the ground hard, landing the commander's feet. She looked back just in time to see Marcus get backhanded and the Devastator following his trajectory.

"_Free me human, or we all die!_" She looked up into the alien's glowing eyes, they radiated both concern and hatred as it glared at the Devastator's back.

"How," she asked panicked. The chains were too thick for her to break even with maximum strength and the controls that she couldn't read were back outside with that, thing.

"_Use my knife, hurry!_" It raised it leg as it spoke and a strange tube fell from it to floor in front of her. Its was six inches long and one across, with a line running across the top cylinder. In slight confusion, she grabbed it and a 7 inch long straight plasma blade strung into life. She jumped as a loud bang carried down the corridor, followed by a shout of pain.

Griping the knife, she rose to feet and reached up the chains holding it's left arm. She didn't know why she was doing this but the Devastator would kill her instantly, and this Commander might just be telling the truth.

The metal hissed and melted when she put the plasma blade to a link. The thick metal was highly resilient to plasma it seemed, for the small blade was having a hard time cutting it and after three seconds it was only halfway through.

With a final hiss, the blade cut through the final sliver of metal. Loud continues bangs began to fill the corridor followed by groans and screams. The commander pulled at the chain and the broken link bent apart until the chain broke. It's arm fell to its side as half the chain landed on the floor in a jumbled heap.

With new fire in it's eyes, the commander reached across to it's right hip where a larger cylinder hung waiting. The commander grabbed it and meter long plasma blade sprung in being. With a quick swipe the chain holding it's other arm fell away and the alien crouched down before her.

"_Thank you, human. I am in your debt._" It said with complete sincerity.

A wet crunch drew both their heads to the corridor followed by heavy stomping coming their way.

"_Stay here, human._" The commander growled. "_This is my fight._" It ran out in to the corridor chains still dragging at it's arms, plasma blade active.

She watched as the commander stopped in the middle of the corridor, the footsteps of the Devastator paused then it roared and she heard it charge. The commander didn't seem troubled by this, for it crouched down in a ready position. Then it jumped high over the charging Devastator, dodging it's clumsy downward swipe with an impressive display of acrobatics.

It landed behind it on all fours, then almost too fast for her to follow, whirled around and stabed it's blade into the Devastator's exposed back. The blade sunk in to the hilt and the Devastator screamed in agony as the plasma burned into its back, boiling the water and blood inside the gelatinous mass. It's claw arm reached behind trying desperately to remove the blade, but was unable to reach it. With a final groan its body burst apart, steam, boiling liquids and reaper implants spilled out on to the floor. Deprived of it's pilot, the huge metal suit fell to the ground with a crash that echoed up the corridor.

"_Forgive me, brother._" The commander's voice was just above a whisper. "_May you find peace in the oceans of the afterlife._" It stood in silent remorse over the corpse for a few moments, before it reached down and retrieved it's plasma blade from where it had fallen on the floor.

"_Come human,_" it said beginning to walk away. "_We can still save your people on this planet, but we must hurry!_"

"All right," she replied uncertainty, she rose to her feet and cautiously followed it down the corridor. She tried hard not to stare at the remains of Marcus as they passed by.

"Where is the command deck," she asked trying to break some of the tension between them.

"_In the heart of the ship, no more then eleven kilometers from us._"

"Eleven kilometers," She gasped out. "How large is this ship?"

"_Thirty five kilometers lengthwise and two across. But this is only a small dreadnought, the largest ones can reach the sizes of planets._"

She stared around with a new sense of awe, this was small? Bullshit! She was about to make a comment when the ship rumbled beneath them. It stopped after a second, but the commander paused and looked about anxiously.

"_They have found your settlement,_" it said at last turning to her. "_Are you capable of warning them, human?_" She nodded.

"_Good, do so._" It turned around and began to walk away, with a mental shrug she followed.

"SECOND, how high up are we," she asked quietly.

"S**ixty kilometers above sea level.**"

"Send out general alert 027, all channels and frequency's."

"**Processing...**"

"Also, was anything received from Outpost 1 when the ship powered up?"

"**Negative. Possible conclusion: Outpost 1 has been terminated.**"She shut her eyes, fighting back tears. They had all become good friends in their short time studying this place, to hear that they all died was too much for her.

"_Have you warned them yet, human._" The alien asked looking back, completely oblivious to her emotional state. Unable to speak, she just nodded and it understood.

"_Good._" They had turned into another long corridor with shut doors appearing occasional on ether side. But the commander appeared to be looking for a very specific one.

"_If memory serves me well, a weapons locker should be here somewhere...Ah!_" It stopped in front of a door and began to tap the holographic screen, unlocking it.

"_Human..._"

"Stop calling me human!" She interrupted rudely, her emotions getting the better of her. "My name is Doctor Maria Walker of Cerberus Research Branch 11, and I would appreciate it if you used it!" The commander's head slowly turned to stare at her, it's eyes were blazing with something she couldn't determine.

"Whats yours?" She asked in a quite and humble voice under it's withering gaze. After a few more seconds it turned back to the screen, and she had become sure it wouldn't answer when it did.

"_I am Xar'Karoth of clan Halkava, High Templar of the Kalisk Order and captain of the __dreadnought _Black Depths, _at your service._"

oOoOoOoOo

The command center was a frenzy of activity, technicians in full nanoshells scurried around, transferring data between each other and comparing notes while marines shouted orders to their underlings above the noise.

"I knew I should have stayed on earth." Miranda muttered angrily to herself as she shoved through a group of technicians clumped around a terminal.

When she and Gould picked up Alert 027 they had immediately returned to New Vegas in the VTOL, it was also another time she was impressed with Gould work. The WarHammer almost kept pace with the VTOL, reaching running speeds of almost 210 kmph. Needless to say they got back pretty fast.

She shoved through another group as they yelled in protest, adding to the noise level. She glanced up to her target, Colonel G, Rodgers stood atop a podium in the center of the command center, shouting out orders to everyone in range.

She growled in irritation as she got stuck in a crowd of yammering techs and had to force her way through, it was like swimming through quicksand that was always getting in your way.

She final got to the foot of the podium after pushing through a startled privet handing out datapads. The Colonel looked down and eyed her thoughtfully.

"Miss Lawson, a pleasure you could join us!" He yelled over the noise, stepping down to her level.

"Whats the situation Colonel?" Miranda yelled back.

"Aliens, that's what!" He walked over to a blank terminal and the screen lit up showing the wavelength of the 027 transmission.

"But," he continued. "We found the sender of the alert, a Doctor M, Walker. Last time I read the roster she was part of Cerberus, know anything about this?!" His visor glared at her accusingly.

"We have a visual!" The shout came from somewhere in the churning throng and interrupted her reply. Everyone fell silent as a large overhead screen flickered to life and the footage from an Orbital Planetary Assessment Drone appeared on the screen.

It was flying high in the upper atmosphere so that the land was spread out like a map, and in the center of that map was a dark rectangle was slowly moving across the screen.

"Bring the drone in closer and get us a better look." The Colonel ordered and the technicians jumped to obey.

The drone zoomed in on the object at a dizzying speed until it hovered directly over the object. Every one gazed at the thing with visible fear. The thirty five kilometer long hulk was covered in the all too familiar sharp and flowing edges of a Ceph construct, but this was the largest one they had ever seen. A bright flash on the ship drew everyone's attention, and they all watched as a bright ball of plasma flew up from the ship heading straight for the drone. The last thing the drone saw was the glowing blue ball rushing up to the camera before all connection was lost and the screen burst into static.

"Gentlemen," the Colonel's voice snapped everyone out of their frozen state. "We will not lose our heads over this. Comms, send an SOS to earth tell them whats happening. Major, ready the defenses. I want everyone armed and loaded in 20 minutes. Tactical, how much time before it arrives."

"We estimate two hours sir," someone shouted. The Colonel nodded.

"More then enough time. Snap to it people!" The command center erupted into action as everyone ran to carry out their duty's.

Miranda was about to leave when the Colonel grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her close.

"I don't know why but somehow I can't help but think you and Cerberus are responsible for this." He hissed in her helmet's audio receptors. "Whether you are directly responsible or not, I have no idea. But know this. If your Cerberus is responsible for waking that thing up, then the blood of those who will die are on your hands. With that he turned away leaving her to contemplate his words.

* * *

A/N For those of you who will scream at me that i got the ceph all wrong, and that their supposed to a hive mind and mindless killers and they come from another galaxy. I KNOW.

But the ceph are just so underrated in every single crysis crossover i've read, you'll hear about them briefly for one or two sentences then they are cut out of the story. But when i thought about returning them to power I thought, why not make their story deeper beyond the mindless killing and conquering. Also they make a rather fine addiction to the mass effect galaxy when you come to think about it, distant cousins of the hanar maybe. So please, i ask you to bear with me on this and i will try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible, i'm still having a time with work.

Also i'm looking for Beta readers, so PM me or however it works if your interested.

(I own nothing)


	6. Get Out Alive

August 13, 2026

Somewhere on broad the _Black Depths_

Maria stared around her with amazement, this was a locker? The door that the newly named, Xar, had opened entered in a football stadium sized room with a high arched ceiling. Rows of neatly organized crates filed its wide expanse, each one had a familiar blue holoscreen on it's side.

Xar wasted no time with gawking at the scenery and immediately went over to the nearest crate. He began to type at the screen with a practiced ease, his fingers dancing over the keys in a way that would make any computer geek jealous. Touching the last rune in his sequence he stepped back as the screen processed the code just entered, then turned a bright red, denying his request.

"_What?_" He glared at the screen as a new line of text flowed across it.

"_Authorization not recognized!_" Maria glanced round and noticed all the crates in the room showing the same message.

"_I am the captain of this vessel,_" he muttered furiously to himself while typing in his code again. "_I will not be denied by my own ship, Machine curse or not!_" The screen flared red again displaying its previous message. Xar swore explosively and pounded the box with his fist to no effect. Maria timidly watched his outburst a few meters away, fearing that the noise would attract the attention of reaper forces.

With a final blow, Xar slumped forward in defeat; his head low to his chest and hands supporting his weight against the crate.

"_What I wouldn't give for an artificial intelligence right now,_" he muttered. Then he straightened and began to look about for something, peering into the dark corners of the ceiling where the lights didn't reach.

"_Prepare yourself,_" he said suddenly turning to her. "_I am unsure how many security defenses remain but this will awaken whatever is left._"

"Wha," she stuttered out still trying to get over the shock of all this. Then she took a deep breath, steadying herself, before she replied in a stronger voice. "What?"

In response, Xar activated his plasma blade, which he still held in his left hand. He turned back to the crate and prepared a downward swipe to remove the lock. But then, in a moment of inspiration, Maria jumped forward and caught his arm before he could swing, holding it there with maximum power.

"_What… Are you, Doing?_" He asked in a voice of pure ice and cold blood, almost making her let go to spare herself from a slow death.

"I...Umm.." She stammered, her earlier resolve now gone. "I... might be able to... Umm... Help with your... AI... Problem."

Xar's head turned in her direction, his eyes were blazing again but not so much in anger this time.

"_You,_" he scoffed. "_In procession of an artificial intelligence? Ha! I'll believe it when I see it._"

"Then let me show you." She replied, now more confident then before. Xar started at her for a few moments, considering her proposal. With a hiss his blade deactivated and he shock out of her grip. Turning to face her, he nodded his head towards the crate, giving his consent.

She immediately brushed his aside and put her fingertips on the screen, careful to avoid touching any script.

"SECOND, can you open this?"

"**Processing.**" The screen flashed and sparked as the AI began it's work. Xar, appearing fascinated, approached from behind and looked over her shoulder.

"_Incredible,_" he breathed out in apparent awe. "_You must be special to have been giving one._"

"No... Not really," she replied focusing on the lines of code flashing in her vision. "Every human has one."

"_Impossible! __A nation would not waste military resources on the common populace. Not to mention the time to program and the resources to make the __mobile __processors, your planet must be nearly dry by now. And what was the point of it all? What do you have to gain from it, besides acknowledgment in the galaxy._"

Maria turned he head from the screen and eyed Xar. He stood leaning against another crate, arms crossed in a relaxed pose despite the possible danger they were in, but the look he was giving her demanded an answer.

"We didn't exactly have a choice," She turned back to the screen. "After the invasion it became a... standard, so to speak."

"_So you had no say when your nation decided on this idiotic venture? I assume that your body harness came with it, did it not?_" She faltered at the harness term, but then decided he meant her nanoshell.

"It wasn't our government that did this, it... It's a really long story."

"_One that I wish to hear when this is over. But what is taking so long?_"

Surprised she turned back to the screen to see it still giving off it's miniature light show.

"SECOND, whats taking so long," she asked worried.

"**Multiple hostile intelligences detected. Processing power strained passed normal parameters. WARNING: Energy discharge detected, seek safe distance.**"

Without having time to understand what the AI said, the crate emitted a high whining sound before it glowed and sparked with lightning. Then it exploded with energy, expanding out from the crate in a glowing blue ball of both physical and electrical force. Maria was sent flying back, hitting the box that Xar was leaning against making a small dent in the metal!

"_Some intelligence you have._" She looked up and glared at Xar who was staring down at her mockingly. "_Unable to open the simplest of locks. Are all your intelligences this weak?_"

"No," she gasped out, feeling a dislocated shoulder slide back into place with the help of SECOND. "Others were in there, keeping me out."

"_Others? What oth..._" His eyes brightened as he remembered something. "_Of course! The ship is in lock down, all available intelligences would be tasked with defending against all cyber attacks and safeguarding locks. I was stupid not to have remembered._"

"How many are on board," Maria asked, slowly rising to her feet beside him.

"_Fifteen when we crashed. However, their programing deteriorates over time without maintenance. And even then they would be to sluggish to put up any defense immediately following stasis awakening._"

"**Proximity alert****.**" She started at the AI's sudden announcement and began to look about anxiously for danger.

"_What is it,_" Xar asked, noticing her nervousness.

"My motion tracker just went off. Something is here with us."

"_They were also given control of the defense drones._" Xar finished his earlier explanation dryly. His plasma blade blazed to life as he got into a combat pose. "_They might still listen to their captain. __B__ut if not. Be ready._"

The only warning that they received was the low hum of a weapon charging up. Two high heat plasma beams leaped out from the darkness of the ceiling, scorching the ground to ether side. Warning shots. But still, it scared Maria and she clutched at her nearest security blanket. Which just happened to be the alien next to her.

Xar immediately stiffened as he felt something grab him around the waist, he looked down to see Maria hugging him with surprising strength. Vaguely repulsed he shock himself trying to dislodge her grip, but she remained fixed. Cursing he deactivated his blade and tried pushing her body away. But to his horror, she only hugged him harder and snuggled her head deeper into his harness.

Shutting his eyes and silently begging forgiveness, he drew his arm forward and elbowed her hard in the head. Her head snapped back from the force and she released him to clutch her cranium in pain. For a moment, Xar was worried that he severely injured her. But when she removed her hands revealing no wounds or unnatural depressions on her helmet besides a crack in her visor, which was rapidly disappearing, he became certain she was fine.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" She shrieked at him and for a moment he was reminded of an angry Narcanus night shark from his home world. He shuddered as he remembered a day from his childhood which brought on his phobia of that particular predator.

Maria looked about to burst out into another shriek, but suddenly looked over his shoulder and froze. It was impossible to read her expressions behind her helmet, but her body language showed extreme fear. With a sinking feeling, he turned around to met the cannons of a Combat Tripod Drone. He vaguely wondered how it had crept up behind him, CTDs weren't known for being silent.

"Pinger," he heard Maria gasp out behind him. So they had encountered these on their world, one of the lesser drones that the Volkasak favored.

The drone hissed as hydraulics in it's legs settled into a firing position and it's MOAC cannons hungrily sucked up moisture in preparation to fire.

Xar stood frozen, not out of fear, but because if not already given a specific target a CTD used movement to select the weakest of the group. If they ran, it targeted their vulnerable backs and gunned them down before moving on the rest. But also because all the CTDs used this as an intimidation tactic, what looked like a preparation for attack was actually an identification scan. He only hoped Maria would stay still, but then again she was probably so petrified that it wouldn't be a problem.

The drone kept it's guns aimed at them for another moment before it dropped it's stance and settled into a more relaxed position. He could hear Maria whispering to herself, something about a happy place, probably a coping mechanism for humans. It was a better reaction then he was hoping for, young ones of his race who were introduced the CTD had more embarrassing reactions.

"_Captain! Is that you?_" He stiffened at the voice that came from the drone. He didn't believe anyone else had survived the machine infection much less the crash, but thank the Father he was wrong.

"_Nar! It is good to hear your voice, my friend._"

"_A__nd yours as well__. I thought __the infected had taken you._"

"_They only locked me in a stasis chamber. Saving me for their new masters no doubt._"

"_What ever the reason, you were fortunate. The machines spared no others._" Xar nodded and bowed his head in sorrow, remembering all those he had fought and served with.

"_They will be remembered. But now, give us your location._"

"_Us? You mean there are others!_" The drone's body did a full rotation, scanning the surrounding area. Xar looked back over his shoulder, Maria was still standing there watching the proceedings wringing her hands in nervousness.

"_Come on,_" he called to her. "_He is a friend, and a trusted one at that._"

"_Who?_" The drone turned and instantly snapped it's guns to Maria, who squeaked and hid herself behind Xar. The drone remained fixed on Maria and the voice was silent for a long while.

"_You have some explaining to do, captain._" It said at last.

"_Indeed,_" Xar replied irritably once again trying to dislodge Maria's unnatural grip around his waist.

"_You always did have a taste in __alien __women,_" the voice chuckled.

"_Not now,_" Xar changed the subject, final getting her to release her grip with out resorting to violence. "_We need to get to the bridge with all speed._"

"_I know, I've been watching __the __infected__ and stopping __their progress__ where I can. What cannons weren't destroyed in the crash I have disabled. As well, I have locked them out of __some __of the ship's systems __though they still control most._"

"_Good, now where are you?_"

"_Intelligence core nine. Take the tram at station four and we can link up at station eleven._"

"_Understood,_" Xar replied then gestured towards the locked crate. "_Would you mind __giving access to arms?_"

"_Of course captain. My apologizes._" After a few moments the screen on the crate flashed green. Xar moved toward it when he was interrupted by a loud crash that echoed throughout the room. The drone instantly swiveled towards the far side of the chamber where a large door loomed in the distance.

"_They are breaching the cargo entrance,_" the voice said, sounding worried. "_Take what you need, then run captain. Personal entrance five will be open and the drone will cover you, but you need to be fast._"

Without further prompting, Xar rushed forward keyed a glyph on the screen. With a hiss and a rush of mist, a glowing seam appeared on the crate from top to bottom and it opened, separating into two half's. The the half's were filled with a blue gel and suspended in each was a weapon, two standard MOAC assault rifles, nicknamed the Pinch rifle. He groaned disappointingly, he would have preferred a more powerful weapon. But still, this was reasonable.

He pulled one of them loose from the gel and pulled a lever on the side opening a vent, letting the weapon suck in it's ammo. Tossing it over his shoulder to Maria, who barely caught the weapon in time, he pulled out the other gun and repeated the process. Hearing it beep, signaling a full tank, he shoved his hand into the trigger guard and it sealed itself around his arm. He synchronized its sights with his HUD and a target reticule appeared in his vision. He swung the weapon around, feeling satisfied when the reticule followed it's movement before he turned to check on Maria.

Almost all her lower right arm was encased by the weapon and her left held it like a sack of old fish, a big mistake, as it's moving components could remove fingers with ease.

"_Not there,_" she started as he walked up and moved her hand to the fore grip. "_It's easier to handle and you keep __all__ your digits._"

She appeared uncertain, but then hefted the weapon in a more confident manner but still with an air of inexperience. Which Xar took note of instantly.

"_You've never fired a weapon before, have you?_" He asked, making her shake her head.

"It's part of basic training, so yes, but... I've never been in anything like this." She replied in a quiet, quivering voice. Typical Females, Xar thought in distaste, always expecting to be noncombatants. Welcome to the real world.

They both turned at the sound of loud hammering, around the edges of the large door thin cracks of light could be seen as the infected pounded on it. The CTD lowered it's self into a firing position, and low hum could be heard from it as it charged a EMP blast.

"_Go captain,_" it said urgently. "_The drone will cover your escape! Hurry!_"

Xar instantly took off running, behind him he could hear Maria trying to keep up with his wide strides. Their target, a small door set into the wall, was a mere fifty meters away and rapidly approaching.

A loud crash echoed around him followed by the shrieks and wails of his fallen crew mates and the firing of multiple weapons. Shards of ice pinged and shattered around him as he ran, hitting his harness and the boxes around him.

With a final leap he made it through the door and slid to a stop before he hit the far wall. A loud thud followed with a groan signaled Maria's entrance and contact with the wall. Not bothering about her for now, he jumped to his feet and slammed on the door controls. Nothing happened. He tried again with the same results.

Cursing, he ducked to the side as a hail of ice and plasma flew through the space he'd unoccupied. He slammed his back to the door frame as he waited for a break in the oncoming onslaught, when quiet suddenly all incoming fire stopped. Fools, they had allowed their weapons to run dry simultaneously. Seeing his chance, Xar leaned around the door frame raising his rifle to his shoulder and looked out onto a scene that chilled his blood.

A silver wall descended upon them, murderous red eyes reflected off armor and shone through the mutated clear bodies of his former comrades. They were charging the door, throwing down weapons in favor of horribly crafted, brutal looking claws and blades of the Machine's design.

With a new hatred for the machines, he opened fire, spewing frozen shards of death into their ranks. With a few well placed bursts he killed the ones leading the charge, as they fell they tripped up the ones them, causing a stall as the rest found ways around their fallen.

Continuing to fire, he spared a glance towards the CTD, it wasn't faring well. Infected crawled all over it, tearing off it's armor and destroying it eternally. In a final act of defiance, it activated it's self destruct and erupted into a fiery ball of plasma and shrapnel. The explosion incinerated any in close proximity while the shock wave knocked down a good number, causing more confusion as they attempted to regroup.

But that didn't stop the front ranks, they were almost at the door now. From beside him, Xar heard Maria firing wildly into the mob and screaming something unintelligible. Typical.

The mod had reached the door now, the only thing keeping them at bay was the unrelenting fire but even that wouldn't last. With horror, he heard his weapon give a loud click, signaling it was dry.

Time seamed to slow as he looked into the oncoming horde, their crimson eyes seemed to call to him, to join them. He could feel something stirring in his mind, something terrible.

The door suddenly slammed shut, sealing them off from the oncoming tide of monsters. He took a deep breath, calming himself from the physiological effect that the infected caused.

"_My apologizes captain,_" Nar sounded as breathless as he did. "_They had locked me out of the door mechanisms. It won't happen again!_"

"_Its not really your choice,_" he opened the vent and the Pinch hungrily sucked up moisture. "_But don't __overexert yourself. We still need you._"

"_Thanks for the encouragement,_" Nar replied somewhat statistically. "_I'll ensure the corridors are clear, but hurry. I think they're beginning to track me down._"

"_Understood, we''ll hurry._" He turned to Maria and paused, curious. Blue energy swam across her combat harness from head to toe, fading away as he looked on. She was breathing hard and she had warped the metal of the fore grip in her panic. The weapon in her hands was emitting a steady click as she kept on pulling the trigger trying to get it to fire.

He sighed, having seen this reaction many times in new recruits in traumatic situations. He reached across and opened the vent on her rifle, the sudden noise snapped her out of her trance and her breathing began to calm.

"Is it over," she asked in a tiny voice.

"_Not yet,_" he replied calmly. "_We still need to get to the bridge. Are you..._"

"Alright? Yeah." She said in a stronger voice. "Lets go." He eyed her for a moment before he turned and began to walk away, with Maria following behind.

oOoOoOo

Their Journey through the corridors was uneventful, except for course corrections from Nar when they went the wrong way. The infected ether didn't think them significant targets now or they were preparing an ambush up ahead, Xar was biding on the latter. But no threats identified themselves.

They turned another corner and walked up a steep ramp before entering into a looked like a subway station. A platform with a large terminal in the middle with tube tracks on ether side, but no trains. Xar wasn't troubled and began to type on it's screen while talking with Nar on a private comm channel.

"_So, you going to tell me how you met her._" Nar chuckled causing him to groan.

"_They freed me from my prison, what more is there?_"

"_They?_"

"_There was another, he didn't make it._"

"_A pity. But how are you faring? A flash flaw isn't easy for anyone, even an __Halkava._"

"_I'm fine, slight itching here and there._"

"_F__reezer burn, easily healed __though. Where are you, it's starting to get uncomfortable over here._" Xar pushed a final button and the far track was lit up with lights as a train was called.

"_We'll be at station eleven momentarily._" He said, walking over to join Maria standing at on the edge of the track.

"_Good, I'm making my way there now. Communications will be cut off from here._" Xar looked down the track and saw the train quickly approaching.

"_Understood, Good luck._" The link went dead with a burst of static, they needed to move fast.

The train slid up to them silently, it looked like a perfect cylinder with no windows or other defining features. With a small hiss, a hatch opened on it's side letting them board. Padded benches hung off the walls with a small holotable in the middle projecting a map of the ship and their current position. They both entered, taking seats on opposite sides of the craft.

"_Station eleven,_" Xar requested and the hatch slid shut before the train rushed away.

Xar sank into his seat with a sigh, relishing the soft padding beneath his back sensory limbs, letting the built up tension bleed out. The Great pilgrimage, the final battle with the Volkasak and now the Machines. Was his species cursed to suffer like this? Was the loss of their galaxy, his home, not enough?!

"Who is he?" Maria's voice jolted him out of his musings. He looked at her, sitting on the far side of the car. "The guy you keep talking to, who is he?"

He briefly considered her question before replying. "_Nar'Kallas of clan Mechona, a personal friend of mine_."

"Whats he like?" Humans were curious creatures, he decided.

"_He won't kill you if that's what your asking about. But he is somewhat of a __troublemarker__, so be wary of him. Many times the pools have been dyed red due to his pranks._"

"So you're all different," she asked, fascinated. "You're not all mindless killing machines like the Ceph we found on earth?"

"_Ceph?_"

"Sorry, its the name we gave your kind. Short for cephalopods, cause you sort of look like squids from our world." She stammered, suddenly finding something very interesting on the floor.

"_I see. But our race is known as the Charybdis. Do not use term, Ceph anymore. Some might be insulted by it, seeing as __it's __used to describe your enemy._"

"You don't consider yourself our enemy." She asked, surprised.

Xar hesitated before answering. "_No I don't. As for the rest of my race..._" He gave a big sigh. "..._To few are left to make a valid consensus._"

"What happened?" Maria's voice was barely above a whisper. He bowed his head, remembering the terrors they had been forced to endure for the Volkasak's treachery.

"If you don't want to talk about that's just fine, I can wait."

"_Thank you. It is still a fresh wound for us._"

A low chime sounded throughout the cabin, signaling they were approaching their destination. Xar immediately rose and stood by the hatch with his weapon primed.

"_Next destination, bridge, __s__et for immediate departure._" Another chime sounded as the train acknowledged his command. The hatch opened a moment later reveling a scene of absolute chaos. Shards of ice and bolts of plasma filled the air like a blizzard obscuring the view outside and forcing Xar to take cover behind the door frame. A small form suddenly rolled through the door hitting the far wall with a bang and the hatch slammed shut. Loud screams of fury rapidly faded as the train sped away.

A groan came from the form as he stood, yellow eyes flashing brightly as he recognized Xar.

"_Captain,_" he exclaimed rapping a hand against his breastplate in a salute. "_I can not thank you enough for your timely appearance._" Xar nodded, inspecting his friend for damage.

Nar'Kallas's Stalker class harness was pox marked with frost coated holes and he was limping because plasma had damaged his left ankle joint, severely handicapping his mobility. But his main body appeared to be unharmed, the bright yellow transparent skin revealed the multiple Mechona implants which were installed at brith. It gave them an interesting ability to merge their minds to any piece of technology, bridging the gap between the organic mind and the digital domain. His weapons were not so exclusive, dual wield MOAC sub-machine guns hungrily sucked up air from after their heavy use.

"_Indeed, but apparently we were to late to save you from injury._" Xar said, looking at his friend's leg.

"_Ah, don't worry about it. I'm lucky it hit there and not somewhere more important._" Nar casually dismissed his worries, holstering his SMGs with a flourish and took a seat. Xar sat down opposite him, waiting for any childlike comments from the young warrior, but he was strangely silent.

Nar'Kallas was young, barely 19 years old, a mere child by military standards. The only reason Xar had granted his transfer requests was because of his technical talent and his combat skills, despite his young age. The fact that he wasn't expressing himself like he normally did was troubling, Nar could rarely keep his mouth shut under normal circumstances.

"_I can see their faces,_" Nar said suddenly in a low voice. He raised his head and stared at Xar, fear radiated from him in tangible waves. "_The corpses of our dead rise up against us and we are powerless to stop it. __How can we fight an enemy that controls the very gates of hell itself?!_" Xar pitied him, he was young and had much to learn about common scene and logical reasoning. But at the same time couldn't help but think that he was right, what the Machines did was unlike any horror he had ever seen. Even the Volkasak hive mind couldn't surpass this.

"_They do not control the dead,_" he said with confidence to Nar. "_It is simply the work of their accursed technology. They can pretend to raise a corpse to life, but it is __only__ a mindless hunk of machinery built into an organic shell._" Nar lowered his head, mulling over what his captain had said, when Xar reached out a hand and rested it on his shoulder.

"_I can understand your fear, even I am afraid. But I do not let it overcome me. Do not let it do the same to you._" Xar retracted his hand and began checking his weapon over for damage.

"_Just a husk,_" he looked up to Nar, who had new fire in his eyes. "_Husk, seems like an appropriate name. Thank you captain. I... Lost myself for a moment._"

"_Your welcome. And yes, it is appropriate._"

"_Husks it is then,_" Nar said brightly, his earlier fear forgotten. "_So what happens now?_"

"_We make our way to the bridge and purge the ship. After that we escape this world, I do not believe it's inhabits would be happy with us even __if__ we save them. What do you think, human._"

"Maria," she shouted from the far end of the cabin, startling Nar who had forgotten about her in his panic attack. "And your right. Most still hate you for the invasion of earth, and I don't think they'll be merciful at all."

"_Then it is settled, we're leaving._" Xar said, rising from his seat to check something on the holotable's surface. Nar's eyes remained fixated on Maria, his initial shock had worn off to be replaced with fascination, both at the new species and at the armor she wore. For like all of his clan, he was always intrigued by any kind of new technology.

"_Incredible,_" he breathed as his advanced scanners took readings of her armor. "_Nano machines working in perfect sync with the wearer. Enhancing physical abilities beyond their limitations. Is it capable of anything else,_" he asked eagerly.

Maria nodded, before vanishing from sight. Nar sat speechless as he stared at the spot she once occupied, he could still see her faint outline and the depression she made on the cushion but it still astounded him.

"_Active camouflage!_" Even Xar seemed impressed by this. "_I saw you use another function earlier, when we fled the armory. What was it?_"

"Maximum Armor," she replied, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "I don't know exactly how it works, but I makes us almost invincible for a short time." Nar appeared to be in some kind of ecstasy, after hearing her explanation.

"_An all-purpose combat __device__,_" he gasped. "_Stealth, armor, enhanced abilities. The perfect combat harness. You must be lucky to have been given one!_"

"Not really, every one has one." Nar looked shocked and glanced at Xar, who only shrugged, before he spoke again.

"_What would drive your people to such measures to have every person armed?_"

"You."

"_Us!_"

"_The Volkasak._" Xar corrected, hate addible in his voice.

"_So,_" Nar sighed. "_You had the misfortune to evolve on one of their hive worlds. Though I must say, I'm surprised you survived long enough to flee._"

"We didn't run, we won! All the... Volkasak on earth are dead!" Nar stared in amazement. These primitives had fought their greatest enemy, and won.

"_What of the Alpha? Did you kill it as well?_"

"Alpha?" Maria questioned, worry growing in her.

"_The __leader__ of an individual hive,_" Xar spoke up. "_They resemble giant Kralan eels, and can destroy anything in their path. They are __formed__ from the consumed biomass of all those who have been assimilated into the hive mind. Abominations that should have never seen the light of day!_"

"We didn't... Kill anything like that. No one even saw anything like it."

"_Then perhaps you were __lucky__. __After our final battle with them, many hives __fled when their Alpha was destroyed and one of them __could have been__ yours.__T__hey__ probably didn't have enough biomass to form a new __Alpha without assimilating your entire race__._" A chime sounded throughout the cabin making Xar check his weapon as he moved for the hatch. "_We are here._"

"_About time, too._" Nar readied his SMGs and stood beside him, followed shortly by Maria. With a hiss the hatch opened and Xar rushed out, scanning the area for husks with Nar and Maria on his heels. The station was empty.

"How much further to the bridge?" Maria asked, eying the exit ramp to the level below.

"_Not long,_" Xar replied beginning the descent. "_It is a short walk to the central highway, from there it's two hundred meters to the bow._"

They continued on in silence through the twisting maze of corridors, constantly checking behind them for husks. When finally they came to a closed door and Xar halted before it.

"_This is it, be ready._" He keyed the open button and lept back and gaged as an awful smell flooded through it. When he had recovered he stepped into the highway and gaped, horror struck at the sight around him.

The central highway was large corridor that ran down the entire spine of the _Black Depths_, fifteen meters high and ten across. Besides the trains they had just traveled on, it was the main method of getting around. But now it was graveyard, thousands of the Machine's spikes filled it's expanse and the dead that were impaled was uncountable.

"_By the __F__ather,_" he heard Nar swear and Maria's sharp gasp as they beheld the sight.

"_Come,_" he forced out, fighting his own revulsion. "_This is the only way._" He turned left and walked up the highway, carefully stepping around the spikes, afraid their occupants would awake. Nar and Maria followed closely behind him, afraid of being left behind in this nightmare.

They had made it around a hundred meters before a sound drew their attention back down the hall. One of the spikes was lowering itself, dropping it's husk to the ground. The infected Grunt staggered to it's feet and stared at them, before it gave a loud shriek that echoed up and down the highway and charged. Nar snapped up his SMGs and gunned it down, sending it body to fall headlong into a clump of spikes, shaking them. Then to their horror, the around them husks awoke and began to shriek their loudest while the spikes retracted.

"_Run!_" Xar shouted and began sprinting up the hall with Nar and Maria behind him. Nar's Wounded ankle didn't hinder him one bit, the repair nanites had done their work well it seemed.

Behind them the number of screams increased, until it seemed the entire ship was chasing them, Xar desperately hoped that wasn't the case. Before them and rapidly approaching was the massive doorway to the bridge. Making a final effort he rushed through the door and slid to a stop, and turning brought his weapon to bear on the approaching husks.

"_Seal the door!_" He shouted to Nar while firing into the horde. Nar skidded to a stop and jumped to a single holographic button the edge of the doorway. He hit it with his fish and the door slammed down from the ceiling, sealing them off from the husks.

"_That will hold them,_" Xar said breathlessly. "_Four meters thick... they don't have anything... that powerful._"

"I hope so," Maria said from beside him. She had already recovered from their mad dash and was looking around with interest.

The bridge was about the size of a large house back on earth, terminals and holotables filled the wide expanse with a captains chair in the center on a raised dais. Massive windows surrounded the room in half circle, through them they could see the green landscape of Eden Prime. But just ahead of them lay the city of New Vegas, and it was burning.

"No!" Maria gasped, running up against the glass to stare out. As she watched, a bolt of plasma descended on the city, getting smaller as it fell from the sky until it hit in the residential sector sending up a new pillar of smoke into the sky.

"I thought you disabled the guns!"

"_I did,_" Nar groaned, coming up beside her and looked down on the city. "_They must __have hacked the turret controls in my absence__!_"

"_Then put a stop to it._" They both turn to Xar who sat in his captain's chair, typing at multiple floating holographic screens surrounding him. "_Nar, get to the life support station. Flood the decks with radiation, EMPs __and__ anything else you can get __and __seal off the bridge__! I want every single husk dead! Clear?_"

"_Crystal._" With that Nar ran towards a terminal on the far side of the room and began to type with unnatural speed as his mind melded with the ship. "_Purge commencing. I've disabled the cannon's plasma lines, they__'re useless now__._"

Maria watched, relived as the rain of plasma stopped, but the damage to New Vegas was already done.

"_Time to go,_" Nar said before moving to another terminal and melding with it. "_Engines set to full burn, we'll __reach the upper atmosphere in a minute, captain._"

"_Good,_" Xar sighed before he turned to Maria. "_There is an escape pod to your left that will take you to the surface, if you wish._"

"If I wish? You mean... I can come with you?" She asked with growing excitement.

"_I see no reason not to. You would probability be hated by your people for being the only Charybdis supporter, and I do not wish to force that upon you._" Maria thought his reasons were logical, but she had other reasons in mind. Her shell had been studying and analyzing the Ceph computers when it could and had massed a large amount of data from the _Black Depths._ But she had heard rumors of Cerberus scientists who had gone missing after completing important projects for the Boss. Even though this was a small operation, that data might make her very valuable to Cerberus. Valuable enough to have her locked in a vault for life as they probed her brain for any knowledge on their enemy. She shuddered even thinking about it.

"I want to come with you." She spoke up, confidently.

"_There's no coming back._"

"I don't care."

"_I suppose there is nothing I can do to sway you._"

"Nope." Xar sighed and lent back in his chair.

"_Then it is settled. Nar, set a course for the last known coordinates __of the fleet, _Eternal Lasting."

"_That probably won't help__, captain. The last time we saw them, they opened a wormhole with unknown coordinates into dark space, leaving no forwarding address._"

"_That complicates things,_" Xar grumbled, mulling over their dilemma in his head. "_How long were we in stasis?_" Nar jumped to another terminal and typed furiously.

"_Wow,_" he said suddenly. "_Our timer says we've been out for almost... Three million years._"

"_Wow indeed._" Xar said bitterly, when a beep drew their attention to a terminal on the far side of the bridge. Nar immediately crossed over to it and examined it.

"_Well what do you know, we got mail._" He said after a moment. "_Two unanswered hails. One from Grand Admiral Balgon, __received__ almost __three million years ago. The other from the... Colony ship Horizon, received seven hundred and twenty five years ago._" He finished with hope.

"_So one did survive,_" Xar excitedly rose from his seat. "_What does it say?_"

"_It's just a set of coordinates._"

"_Then we have our heading,_" he sat down again and typed on a screen. "_Set a course and prime the main..._" He was interrupted by a loud clang as a vent cover fell from the ceiling, and a single shriek echoed from the dark opening.

"_I thought you purged the ship,_" Xar jumped up and readied his Pinch.

"_I did! It must have been in there when I sealed us __off__._" Nar replied pointed his SMGs at the hole, waiting for the husk to show itself.

With a scream the husk launched itself from the vent, landing on a holotable and cracking it's surface. It was an infected Guardian, it's right arm had been replaced by long barbed blade which crackled and sparked with power. It screamed at them, then cloaked vanishing from their sight.

"_I hate these guys,_" Nar groaned. "_They were hard enough in training, and that was when they only stunned you._"

"_Watch for the blur,_" Xar advised, scanning the area. "_Their cloak isn't perfect._"

"I see it!" Maria shouted, firing off a burst at the far wall, she was surprisingly accurate. Shots shattered against the husk, breaking it's cloak and forcing it back. Though it recovered quickly and leaped away before the others could lock on, disappearing behind a clump of terminals.

"_You can see it? How?_"

"I don't know, SECOND said something about changing modules."

"_Interesting._"

"Behind you!" Xar turned and raised his Pinch, just in time to divert an overhead slash that would've decapitated him. Instead the blade slid off and embedded itself into his chair. The husk tried to pull it out, but it was jammed firmly in place.

Xar chuckled darkly, before raising his Pinch and unleashed full auto into it's head. The faceplate shattered and blood flew everywhere as the now headless husk crumpled to the ground.

"_Now the ship is purged,_" Xar muttered, wiping the gore off his chest plate. "_Nar, are we clear __to__ make the jump?_"

"_Yes captain, we just cleared the atmosphere._" Indeed they had, the view outside the windows was filled with bright constellations of stars. In the far distance, the system's sun shone brilliantly into the bridge and cast shadows onto the wall behind them.

"_Good, open a wormhole to the coordinates __Horizon __sent us._"

"_Understood, captain._"

The shadows cast from the sun faded as a wormhole opened up before them. As it's last rays disappeared, no one noticed the fourth shadow cast on the wall, slowly moving behind an unsuspecting human.

* * *

A/N: Ok, I'm sorry it's taken me this long to upload this chapter. My schedule was all over the place, but hopefully with school I will have a more stable one to work with.

And don't worry, a history lesson on the Charybdis is coming up next.

Also I found this name on Crysis Wiki but I'm unsure if it's the right one. If anyone knows the Ceph's real name, please tell me so I can correct it.

(I own Nothing.)


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